We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect. -Anais Nin

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10!

What those three beauties are trying to tell you is that we have 10 days until we board the plane heading towards the cradle of life.

10 days. Yikes, the countdown begins.

I’m kind of a workhorse this morning, which is good because I kind of need to be. When I was looking at the calendar I got very nervous about fitting in everything that needs to be done before we leave. But I’ve got a little secret weapon…

It’s called camp. And all 3 kids will be there this week!

Trysten leaves today (by “leave” I mean we walk up a slight incline to drop him off in his counselors welcoming hands) for overnight/resident camp for the entire week. From today until Friday we’ll see him pretty much only at breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. Exciting, yes, a little sad, yes.

Then tomorrow Tariku and Dailah head off to day camp from about 8-4 every day. So mama’s got lots of plans.

Monday I’m heading to various shopping places to *hopefully* get the last of our necessities for the trip. I had forgotten how expensive trips can be to prepare for. Oy!

Tuesday I teach my classes.

Wednesday I make lots of food to freeze. I’m also making loads of granola bars, cookies, granola, muffins, etc. Things that we can take with us to snack on in Ethiopia. I vividly remember being hungry all the time (to be fair, I’m always hungry all of the time) and I never had enough snacks on me. Trying not to repeat that particular offense. Oh, and I’ll probably try to pack a little bit.

Thursday I teach more classes.

Friday is our day for the travel call letting us know all the fun details of our trip. It will also be the time when I do laundry and try to begin packing the kids’ stuff for while we’re gone.

Next weekend we’ll enjoy each others time (including a possible Shrek 3 viewing at our local IMAX with the kiddos).

Next Monday there will be some cleaning to do (millipedes have taken over in this house with all the rain we’ve had. I’m used to it but my brother and sister-in-law might not be as okay seeing them while they’re watching our kiddos the first part of our absence).

Tuesday I teach a few classes, the boys have a baseball game and then I’m hoping I can talk Zach into a family sleepover.

And next Wednesday, well WE’RE GOING TO ETHIOPIA!

It must be said that I’m in a highly emotional state at this point in time. Saturday I was driving to teach my class and just started crying. No particular reason why but it was mostly because I thought about leaving my three little babies.

After my class my sister-in-law called to tell us my brother was admitted to the hospital for stomach pain and some suspicious blood work (he’ll be fine, but it’s all still unknown). All I heard was “It’s Marcus” and I started to cry. That’s all it took, though you guys know I’ve always had quite the soft spot for my baby brother.